Weekly Newsletter

Review: Lindsey Stirling in Australia in concert

In addition to writing stuff in my spare time for TORn, yours truly also reviews and photographs a lot of live music. Normally, the two hobbies don’t intersect, but on Saturday evening I caught rock-violinist Lindsey Stirling at The Powerhouse Theatre in Brisbane. I was able to both photograph and review the performance for a small Australian publication.

I figured a few of you might be fans of Stirling, having previously seen her extremely popular video medley of music from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack (it’s had some 13 million views, which is not too shabby). So here’s my review, and a selection of the best photos I took on the night. If this is your thing, enjoy!

There’s a long wait for rock-violinist Lindsey Stirling this evening at The Powerhouse — at least 15 minutes long, to be honest. For a touch over an hour, Kiwi DJ 1000 Ninjas labours manfully from a cubbyhole spot almost side-of-stage. In a club environment his chill-out grooves and odd samples would probably win a better reception, but this crowd is expecting action and movement, and that’s something beyond 1000 Ninjas’ scritchy-glitchy stillness tonight.

By contrast, Stirling is all movement. Over the course of an hour and twenty minutes she barely halts — whirling, twirling, jumping and pirouetting. Formal ballet it isn’t, still Stirling’s show is as much an act of dance as it is a musical performance. All with a carbon-fibre violin jammed under her left ear. And the capacity crowd — a peculiar mixture of young and old; gamers and geeks reflective of the diversity of her fanbase — laps it up.

It could all easily come off as a gimmick, yet Stirling’s undeniable chops on the fiddle allow her to deliver a set of engaging tunes high on verve while avoiding the cheese factor.

Many of the highlights flow from her self-titled long-player: Anti-gravity is a punchy and aggressive opener, the livewire drumming of Drew Steen lends bottom-end grunt to Electric Daisy Violin, while the lurching percussion and insistent see-sawing violin of Moon Trance make a strong contender for tune of the night.

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